Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to get sunburned to develop skin cancer. I know this, because a few weeks ago I found out that I do have skin cancer of the worst kind, Melanoma. It'* not on my back, arms, face, ears, or nose, which are the common spots, it'* on my FOOT which has never been burned before EVER. To make matters worse, it'* not just on the outside of the skin, it has gone deep into the skin and under my nail. apprently it can start without changing color so many people don't even notice it'* there. I thought nothing of it until the side of my toe and nail literally turned black as you can see in the picture. It'* gross looking, I know. All of the discoloration is due to the cancer. I go in tomorrow for the procedure to remove the nail, the nail bed, the front of the toe, the side, and the spot between my toes. (there'* some more cancer cells there.) I had a biopsy done a few weeks ago so that'* how we're positive it'* skin cancer. It sucks because we have no idea what caused this, especially in this area! The good news is atleast I get to take three weeks off of work because I wont' be able to wear a shoe for several weeks, nor walk for the first couple of days.. Just wanted to make people aware that you can get skin cancer in areas you wouldn't really expect to get it.. I never would of thought this was cancer personally, just something gross. lol. Thank god my aunt is a doctor and picked up on what it was and told me to get it removed ASAP! She'll be the doctor doing the procedure tomorrow...


the areas circled in white are the main locations of the cancer.

Sorry to hear about your skin cancer. Good thing you had it looked over before it got REALLY bad and you had to amputate the foot!!

terribly sorry to hear of your situation, we hope you make a full recovery.
very nice of you to let us all know about this to prevent other situations.

wow, that is crazy. It'* always good to give people a heads up!! Good luck to you too!

looks like my toe when I had ingrown toe nails. (I've had more surgeries on my toes than fingers on my hands.)

Best of luck with that!

wow, good thing you caught it, one of my uncles just died of melanoma, but he found it on his face..a foot is just wierd...

BEST OF LUCK! Hope everything comes out alright!

My fiancee'* dad just had one removed from the side of his nose and is doing well.

Best of luck to ya'. Good thing you caught it in time

Body rot
CANCER
My condolences man. :(
Get your life in order. Check your insurance. Settle your accounts and prepare yourself.
This is a disease that is one mean mutherfrucker
I have had a couple of close friends pass on from a very small melanoma. You think, oh it'* small and they can remove it.......then they tell you it'* developed in your liver and spine and .......you get the picture.

If you last 6 months it'* a good sign.

If I were you, I would have a full MRI done ASAP.

they're going to do the full body-scan later in the month to determine if it had spread to anywhere. Luckily the toe is in a location that'* not near any lymph nodes which makes it hard for it to spread. This is a cancer that spreads throughout the lymphatic systme of the body, but from a toe, they don't think it did spread. I had the surgery yesterday morning at 9:30 and was feeling pretty good afterwards, making jokes with the nurses and such.. It was deep enough into the tissue that the fatty tissue all the way to the bone nearly had to be removed from the tip of my toe. I felt fine until this morning; that is when I woke up to an ungodly throbbing in my foot. I attempted to walk but I fell back into the bad when i tried that.. .there was no way I could put any kind of pressure on it. It'* tolerable when I have it propped up though, such as if I were to sit in a reclining chair all day.. I think I can tolerate that. lol. I just can't let it go below waist-level for too long or the pain starts in from the blood pressure. Anyways, my aunt removed all the wrapping from the foot (she'* my doctor) and I asked to look at the wound.. It definately looked like something from a horror moving all bloody and mushy. You're NOT going to be seeing pictures of that part. hah. It'* definatley gross. I'm feeling pretty good again though as I'm on Vicadin AND a pain killer that'* injected in my arm.

Here'* to two weeks of no work and no obligations.

Best wishes, glad to hear you made it through.
Seeing its not a sun exposed area could it be caused by dyes in socks or such.
I used to get burned real bad on the beach years ago and now developed a growth that had to be removed on my shoulder. Tested OK.